The echocardiogram is a well-known diagnostic procedure that uses ultrasound to take moving pictures of the heart. It is estimated that there are over ten million echocardiograms performed annually in the United States. Among other things, the echocardiogram allows measurements of the chambers of the heart and the appearance and motion of the heart. A large amount of detailed information must be reviewed and evaluated by the interpreting physician, sometimes called an echocardiographer. Echocardiogram reports (hereinafter “echo reports”) are typically arranged by the different anatomical structures in the heart such as chambers or valves. On the basis of this anatomical structure approach, the echocardiographer may identify a particular condition. The echo report is then dictated or hand-written before being typed and returned to the interpreting physician for review and signature. Only then is the echo report, which must be complete and understandable, sent to the primary care physician who ordered the report. Aside from the loss of time and money in this process, the echocardiographer must review and approve a report without the benefit of the echocardiogram images in front of him for review.
In addition to the large amount of information that must be reviewed and evaluated by the echocardiographer, there are differences in opinion among echocardiographers as to the number of segments appropriate for classification of the heart muscle. For example, some use a sixteen-segment classification and others use a fifteen-segment classification.
Aside from differences in preferred classification of the heart muscle segments, the number of measurements actually taken on a particular patient is usually less than the possible number of measurements. It is also true that some areas of the heart cannot be visualized well in every patient. What this means is that many data fields may be empty and make a report longer than necessary and require additional time on the part of the evaluation physician to dictate an explanation for the missing items.
Although there have been attempts to generate echo reports by computer software, there is a need for a method or system that allows the user, having identified a specific condition by an anatomical based approach to cross reference and compare other options by a condition or disease based approach. Likewise, there is a need for a method or system which gives the user the ability to create an echo report with minimal interaction and to edit the elements of the report as selections are made or to generate a report in grammatically correct sentences that is complete and understandable for the primary care physician.
What is also needed is a method or system that can quickly and easily guide the user through the various areas of the heart with color-coded diagrams of the various segments of the heart which merit comment on the report. Likewise, what is needed is a method or system that can be easily installed in a doctor's personal computer (“PC”) or laptop and is suitable for both general cardiologists and echocardiographers.